Eric Cantor will propose Federal Law that Ends Overtime Pay for hourly workers

In Eric Cantor's February 2013 speech, he said he wanted to propose Federal Law that would end overtime pay for hourly workers. Currently, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA), signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, mandates that certain workers get paid "time + 1/2" for overtime work. Eric Cantor wants to eliminate that law. Because -- ya know -- workers not getting paid for overtime hours worked out so good for workers before FDR enacted that Law.

Eric Cantor's "end of overtime pay for workers" that he talked about in his February speech was overshadowed, in part, by the public whining Cantor did bitching that 'Obama gave his speech at the same time as me ... wah, wah, wah.'

In this month's New Yorker Magazine, Ryan Lizza wrote an excellent article titled: "Can Eric Cantor, the Republican Majority Leader, redeem his party and himself?" in which Lizza reminded readers that Eric Cantor wants to end the Federal law that mandates certain workers get paid overtime for the extra hours they labor.

121. After they get their heads handed to them . . .

After they get their heads handed to them in 2014, we'll be hearing a lot less of this kind of crap from the remaining Republican office holders. Yes, State Houses will change to Democratic control, and most likely more than a few of them. The GOP will then try to change its disgraced image in the eyes of America's working poor and middle class people, but few will ever trust them again, not after the harm they have done and are still doing to our country.

164. Don't underestimate the ability . . .

Don't underestimate the ability of your average American voter to finally, after so many years, catch on and get a clue as to why their lives have gotten worse and worse and more and more desperate. I think the latest few self-serving actions by Republican politicians; actions mean only to enrich their wealthy sponsors; actions which will harm the working poor and middle class, will be the straw that breaks the camel's back of conservative voting in many of those reliably Republican districts.

118. Does it have a clause that guarantees workers rights to 'compete' for employment by

139. First they destroyed our Unions.

Now they are trying to overturn the rights, fought and died for by our fellow Union citizens (that have helped non-Union alike).
Honestly, how can any "peoples representative" even suggest that Americans should not be paid more for sacrificing (what is supposed to be their time) to earn enough to starve on?
Is there anyone who actually believes that we do not live in a fascist country? This is waay over the top even for cantor.
His huge salary is guaranteed as is his retirement and heath care (we pay for it), that does not include the wealth given to him by corporations to try and pass anti-people legislation or his ability to profit by insider trading, which is "legal" for congress....
If we don't fight now (united), we are guaranteed to lose that ability (divided).

71. He's relying on the people who voted for him to fall in lockstep

78. He knows only

his wealthy constituents, the ones who live in the Riverbend area of Richmond. He couldn't care less about the rest of them. I know, I used to be one, not that I ever voted for him! But I do know that when he comes back to Richmond he only goes to see his wealthy friends and beg for more money. That's how he spends time "down in the district."

132. He does that, I guarantee you people will leave at quitting time

and have their numbers changed at home. Employers will find no one to work overtime if it is unpaid, or even if it goes toward paid time off. Too many people have been burned on vacation time to buy that one.

It's not just the poor who are hourly workers expected to do overtime.

If he manages to ram this piece of shit through, I guarantee you hospitals will be the first to go against it. They couldn't stay open without time and a half to entice workers to do overtime.

147. No way, in this economy. Workers have zero leverage.

162. With no overtime pay

employers are going to have workers who are increasingly hard to find in their hours off. That is a given.

Employers are not going to want to keep spending the money to train new hires. You can train a new hire on a fast food line very quickly. You can't train skilled new hires that quickly. I once read a cost estimate of $50,000 for bringing in a new nurse for a six week training period in facility procedures and that was some years ago. It costs an equivalent amount to bring a skilled assembly line worker up to speed. New hires are expensive.

Employers don't want to have to keep training them every week. It's cheaper to work the old employees to death and pay them overtime. Overtime on artificially low wages is a relative pittance.

153. There is always someone...

166. It won't happen...

...not with this Senate, and certainly not with this President.

It can ONLY happen if the Senate is taken over by the Repubs in 2014, and win the WH in 2016. Not out of the question, considering the election rigging they're attempting in places like Michigan - but for now at least, highly unlikely.

167. From your typewriter to their shell like, privileged, and often ignorant ears

They simply have no clue how important that extra work at time and a half is to families and what a hit the economy would take if it were converted into time off that no company would ever allow a worker to take and which would disappear if the worker quit, got fired, got laid off, or retired.

It's a screw job that will deepen the recession nicely. Let's hope they figure that out.

6. Evil fucker

7. The law should be expanded to all hourly workers

and "saving up overtime hours" to trade for time off only works if the time off is at the employee's discretion not the employer's and that extra time off is figured at a rate of one OT hour = one and one half hours of time off.

106. We are working on it.

I threatened to open a case with Dept of Labor if it wasn't resolved with either time off or a check for 84 hours. District Complex looked at me like they thought I was kidding, and I responded, "Hey - I'm an old lefty liberal. We LIKE the fact that the government steps in on cases like this...". That was last week. We shall see!

105. As a state employee of Texas I got paid time off instead of overtime

At time and a half. Fortunately, my employer was good about letting us take it if we had earned it. Actually, in practice it meant we usually couldn't work more than 40 hours unless something dire had happened, because they didn't want people racking up large amounts of comp time.

But you're right, it is up to the employer most of the time and, if you don't have a good one, you will get screwed.

158. I am salaried and in management, so not apples-to-apples, BUT...

I have eaten over 100 hours of vacation time in the last 2 years AND have routinely worked 50-60 hour weeks. I am on an off-shift and company policy is to have a replacement available to "cover" your vacation hours or they can be denied. Just try finding people to "cover" the 4PM-2:30AM shift (or worse the 5PM - 5:30 AM weekend shift)...in some cases my manager covered some of the time, but in other cases the time off was simply denied.

I know that I COULD quit, but unfortunately such a move on my part would drastically impact my family and precipitate a move that my wife and kids are very much opposed to doing. If I work less hours, I will get passed by even more of the younger workers who are already putting in 70 hour weeks and getting promoted past my "slacking" 50 hour weeks.

There is simply no way in hell the idea of flex-time off will EVER work in a manufacturing environment - the excuse of "impacting productivity" is the ultimate trump card. Workers should be very afraid that scumbags like Cantor feel secure enough in their positions to even suggest this in public. It is very telling that something which would have made your political career toxic waste a generation ago now makes you a weird sort of hero to many on the right. Very scary stuff indeed...

116. After Nixon the Republican Party should have been buried then came Reagan.

George H.W. Bush was knee deep in filth and his son George the lesser was beyond description. What resides in Congress and State Government under the Republican label today meets the criterion of enemies domestic. It is getting worse and I for one cannot imagine what is coming in another 10 years. The Republican Party IS trouble and will be back on their own terms.

49. No, not fine. A little tit for tat with millionaires isn't going to fix anything or

inflict enough agony to shake loose any empathy or even an urge for self preservation because for almost everyone that is cherry not sundae. They want their cherry but if it somehow magically came to such a choice they'd still benefit more by fucking us over which it won't because they would have to pass such a law, which seems unlikely.

No, we get some traction by playing real hardball. We don't elect motherfuckers who isn't on the agenda and if they get in and start playing the game as usual then we throw the fucker out with extreme prejudice and try again.

11. "We're all about taking away jobs, jobs, jobs."

12. I Dug Up One Of My Posts On A "National Workers Association"......

Please check out the link below and read about my idea for a "National Workers Association" and my reasoning behind this idea. If you read the response I got - you will see that there was support and other posters even made suggestions as to how to improve on it.

Given what I just read here about Cantor wanting to end 'overtime pay' for hourly workers I decided to repost my idea.

Cantor just infuriates me and any attempt by him or his party to do this needs to be stopped and stopped immediately. I'm sure that even some of his supporters that voted for him would be very upset by this.

14. Cantor Wall street waterboy

He is worse than a piece of shit as one stated, the bastard works about 75 days a calander year and we tax payers pay him about 175,000 per year plus all the fringe benifits!!! The arrogant sonof a bitch is over paid while the working poor are under paid and he wants to cut our wages? You can bet the sorry bastard has never had a real job, how many Virginian republican working poor that voted for the bastard know what he has just stated? Will some one inform them, I for one am going to the Virginia Topix forum and inform them, can they read? Ya all follow me and do the same, lets inform those people that keep the prick in office, sorta like Romny's 47% revelation

17. From the article

Cantor spoke about school choice, tax reform, expanding visas. After the speech, he rode back to the Capitol and met privately with House Republicans to discuss one of the policies he had emphasized: a policy that would allow workers to convert overtime compensation into time off. “I gave a talk today about helping people and about finally focussing on legislation that has understandable benefits right away,” Cantor said. He explained that it would help parents who wanted to go on a field trip or attend a teacher conference. “What I want to see is how we can communicate this, communicate the benefit. How are we going to build a coalition and get it done?”

22. Cantor's wife is a "liberal Democrat?"

86. I found the whole article

a very good read. Back biting infighting and intrigue was all there. It is a long read but I learned quite a bit about the process and the sometimes crash and burn into total ruin some plans suffer. Cantor is up against two Liberals not one in his family which actually gives him some humanity. And the other titles about the OT idea is just a hook. That tidbit came up at the end and was a part of his speech.
I recommend everyone read it and then comment.

24. The only change to overtime we need...

...is allowing retail workers to work 80 hours over two weeks before overtime provisions apply.

And only retail employees.

Retail workers who actually help customers (as opposed to the ones that run and hide) can accrue 15 minutes of overtime a week fairly easily. Fifteen minutes sounds trivial but most retailers will write you up for it. Allowing a retail employee to cut the 15 minutes he was over on Sunday on Monday at lunchtime would be a good thing.

The labor laws contain tons of exceptions and this would be a good one.

110. I wholeheartedly disagree.

I've been in retail/fast food all of my working life. The idea you propose would not be good for retail workers -- on the contrary, it would be bad for us.

Employees of retail are just as entitled to overtime for hours worked over 40 in a given week as anyone else is. To the problem of being written up for 15 minutes of overtime, the answer to that is to clock out at 40 hours, period. If a customer needs help at or near the 40 hour mark, it can be explained something like "I'm sorry -- I have to be leaving, but Sally Sue here will be happy to help you" or "I'm sorry -- I have to be leaving, but I'll page another employee to come to this area to assist you." The answer is not to have the employee work unpaid overtime for the time after 40.

Employers would exploit such a change in the FLSA to favor themselves, at the detriment of their employees. Some already have, and some currently do, by either not knowing that they can't "average" a two-week pay period for overtime (though it's their job and responsibility to know this), or by taking advantage of employees who don't know that it's illegal to do.

I have been and am on the working end of this. If any change needs to be made to the law, it should that an employee cannot be written up for overtime. The managers can be responsible for ensuring that an employee is replaced by another -- by themselves, if necessary -- in helping a customer if the 40 hour mark is approaching.

Work performed over 40 hours in a week is protected for a reason. It should stay that way.

133. I have also been on the working end of this

If you're the only person currently in the building who knows how to order windows, and someone walks in fifteen minutes before you hit forty and wants to order windows, you do not leave until that order is staged. Period.

If you're the only person currently in the building with a forklift license and someone buys 300 feet of fencing ten minutes before you hit forty and needs it loaded, you do not leave until that order is loaded.

And if you have an asshole manager who doesn't believe in exceptions even if you call him and tell him you're taking care of a customer, you get written up. It's happened to me on several occasions - getting disciplined for doing your job.

Rank-and-file retail associates CAN clock out at forty; specialty associates like I was sometimes can't, and for them being able to work 80 hours in 14 days rather than 40 in seven would save them a LOT of pain.

143. I hear what you're saying.

I was a "specialty" associate at one place for nearly ten years, though not at a home improvement type of store. I was often the only person in the department until my replacement arrived, and often the only one in the store who knew how to do my job.

I ran into the overtime issue a lot (say my replacement calls in sick, or quits), and also the issue of taking lunches or even bathroom breaks, since doing so would leave the department unstaffed and it was a full-service situation. I had to fight for the "right" to take the same breaks and lunches as everyone else. I ended up with overtime, too. They tried to hold that overtime against me.

First step for me was involving the district manager. Told him to check the overtime stats for my department, then informed him that all of that overtime was me. He wanted to know why I had the overtime, I explained that nobody else was trained to do the job, therefore it was either work the overtime or close the department for periods of time. Either choice was a disciplinary issue for me, as I was not "allowed" to do either one.

Second step was when the store manager at the time decided to inform me that as for taking lunch, I was to eat lunch in my department between customers, but I was to keep written track of the minutes I spent chewing my food between customers so that the time could be added up and electronically deducted from the timeclock records and from my pay. Really. He told me to do that. I calmly informed him that I would run that one by the Home Office and the Labor Board, and if they didn't have a problem with it, then neither would I. He turned purple and walked off.

Management ended up having me cross-train a number of regular associates to do my job, so that there was a pool of people from which to call over for breaks/lunches and to avoid overtime. But any overtime that still resulted on occasion was paid, as it should be.

I do hear what you are saying. My story from that workplace could have gone differently if the district manager hadn't put his foot down on store management, or if the store manager had decided to find a reason to fire me. Asshole managers win over lowly employees all the time, I know this.

But I still firmly believe that the answer is NOT in weakening overtime protections for the retail sector. It's in strengthening those protections for ALL workers. In a word -- unions. Peace.

155. I don't even have any beer in the house

Okay, how about this: Allow no more than 30 minutes to be rolled into the second week of a pay period. It doesn't give employers enough playroom to abuse employees but it does give employees breathing room. Maybe a full hour.

Now for the real improvement we all need: ban calculating time worked in 15 minute increments. There is where your real abuse lies. Right now, at every retailer in America, if you punch the clock at any time from 9:53 to 10:07 it will consider you to have started work at 10:00. It will also record the exact time you started. There are lots of petty tyrants who think you're not a team player if you don't hit the clock at 9:53 and clock out at 6:07. Do the numbers and you'll see: if you're full time, work 50 weeks a year and make $10 per hour, it costs $625 a year to be a team player. Quarter-hour attendance keeping is a relic from the days of green eyeshades and spreadsheets made of yellow paper. Now we have computers.

32. Overtime Pay Is Antibusiness and Bad For Business. That Is The US Chamber Meme

65. Overtime Pay Is Antibusiness and Bad For Business.

When I was making costumes for "Last of the Mohicans" the head of the shop, who was British, was mad because the production company would not let her hire a few more workers instead of expanding our hours (as it got close to shooting). So we worked from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM 6 days a week and some on Sundays. This, she explained, just makes people tired and fatigued and actually slow....with many more mistakes made that took up time to correct.

It is actually more cost effective to hire more people.... even temporarily.

94. pay of any kind is bad for business

according to some. however, companies are allowed to deduct wages and salaries, benefits and employment taxes. if they don't want to pay overtime, we could compromise by taking away their deductions for salaries, benefits and taxes.

108. US Chamber of Commerce is a Chinese laundry.

33. They never stop looking for ways to harm our country....

I remember George Bush saying "They (the terrorists) never stop looking for ways to harm our country and neither do we." We all thought he mis-spoke. Instead he was just letting the cat out of the bag. The Republican party is intent on turning us into a third world country. Any middle class or poor person who votes Republican is an idiot.

53. I was thinking Satan

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

60. Should a Teacher with a BA and certification be an Hourly employee at Private Pre-K School?

Having this conversation with my daughter right now. I personally think that should be illegal. This is for what appears to be a for profit franchise with 12 preschools in Manhattan and Queens. $17/hour for the credentials they want? In NYC????? Required 45 hour work week? Time and a half OT with that hourly wage? Of course not. She is certified to teach Childhood Education in NYS. She previously taught 1st grade in NYC public schools. When did they change the Fair Labor Standards Act? With her education, which is required by this "school", she should be an Exempt employee if the job requires special training and/or education for the job. This is what I was not only taught in college (paralegal degree), but also having worked in HR many years.

This Preschool charges $24,000 a year per student. Do the math. This is the major problem with turning education into a for profit BUSINESS.

69. God, I just hate Republicans. Really the scum of the earth as far as I am concerned.

Everyone of them that I worked for, including my Father,were such assholes towards their workers.. then wondered why the workers stole from them constantly. Most of them went under as well....(including my father 7 times)

A good number of them, and being in construction all my life that is a HUGE number, would avoid it all and pay cash, or under the table, or pay you by salary then work you for 90 hours a week,

Now they pay piece work, which at an average hourly would amount to LESS (by far, too) that the hourly NON UNION wage was in 1980. 33 Years ago.

The union contractors are all still in business and some of my friends from being int he union are now retiring.

75. Even

76. Typical Cantor

He cares absolutely NOTHING for anyone who doesn't give him LOTS of money. Certainly nothing for the working people. I used to live in his district and I can attest to that. He definitely can't redeem either his party or himself. Heck, he couldn't redeem a Green Stamp!

80. The GOP Has Already Nearly Trashed The Fair Labor Standards Act.

For one they have weakened the overtime pay part of the act by abusing reclassification and salary. And they have weakened minimum pay by keeping it low. The most damaging thing they have done is severely compromised enforcement. Wage enforcement is under attack at the state level. The DOL I used to work for is a shell of its former self. And in red states in particular labor enforcement is probably nonexistent now. A lot of workers who used to work enforcement are retired, transferred or fired.

I see no really effective labor enforcement in a lot of areas. And in the near future the National Labor Relations Board will have not members when the last member's term expires. The GOP will not approve any new members. If their are no members there can be no decisions. And the board has not had a quorum in a very long time. Besides the court struck down Obama's recess appointments. And the court redefined recess in a way that gives the president only the days between Congresses. This year I believe their was NO recess between the 112th and 113th Congress.

If a GOPPER were to win the White House again God forbid, the GOP would change all the rules back again.

For all practical purposes employees have NO rights now and NO protections. Maybe Cantor can revive slavery.

107. This is the ultimate insult to the working class!!!

109. If Republicans like Cantor got their way,

Women would lose the right to vote, slavery would be OK, and every beneficial government program that helps the middle class on down would be cut. Only government services that aid corporations and the wealthy would survive.

Eric Cantor is not an American. He doesn't understand that America doesn't work that way. Go somewhere else, Cantor, there's probably a third world country that would love to have your "leadership."

119. Eric, "Bobby" Jindal wants to have a word with you...

120. Hhhhmmmmmmm! Maybe it's what we need?

What will it take to get people so pissed off that they take to the streets in protest by tens of thousands in every state. Nothing is going to start to change until the people get fighting mad and throw themselves on the wheels and stop the machine. There should have been millions in the streets after the financial collapse. It's time we started laying siege to some gated communities. Start learning how to throw rocks like the Palestinians. it is time to rise up. Warm weather is coming. It's easy to protest when the weather is warm.

122. This is how it is for anyone who labors in Ag

Some states (CA) require overtime after 60 hrs, but attempts to bring it to 40 hrs as other laborers earn have been vetoed by Schwartzinger. We don't know what Brown would do as he did veto overtime pay for domestic workers- also excluded from federal overtime laws. A lot of peopl do not get paid overtime. And you would not believe the sick arguments the farmers- even some of my fellow organic farmers -make about it.

124. Just More Ayn Rand Drivel

The rich are getting theirs, screw hourly workers. When, oh when will enough of the working class wake up, to finally see they're getting played by the wealthy.

I figure we have a shot to draw in all but the religious nutjobs - the rub is there must be a ton of them, I heard a poll stating that 40% of us believe that God had some hand in who won the Super Bowl. Those folks are clinically insane - supposing there is a God, one might think He/She/It would have more important matters to ponder than who wins a football game in a backwater galaxy.

If anyone wonders how the Dark Ages happened, pay attention to the current crop of fundie religious crazies, they would have fit right in back then.

137. This really is the end of the GOP Party

The arrogance, hubris, self-aggrandizement, social Darwinist
slime hits the fan.

The GOP from the get-go was a party of business interests
that sold itself to the masses with lies.

Abe Lincoln was a railroad lawyer and front man for Northern
Manufacturing that used tariffs to enrich themselves. He was
a great politician, and great American, but his political
platitudes were often a cover story for the rich.

For more than 100 years, Social Darwinism, survival-of-the-fittest
has co-existed with Christian concern for the poor and devout.

The GOP ideology is now broadly exposed, logically inconsistent
with itself, and no longer being received very well.

This situation will not go away quickly, not until the public
forgets it, which will take about 40 years.

did cantor say anything about ending overtime pay. Dailykos puts an incredible bad spin on a bill that some people might actually like. HB 1119 is a voluntary program for both the employer and the employee, It the employee chooses, he/she could get paid comp time in lieu of overtime at the same rate of 1 1/2. It sets out how much time you can carry and how you can choose to cash the hours out. There is no guarantee that you could actually get the time off which is a little problematic. If you know how your company is about giving time off, then don't be part of the program.

As for me, I could use the money right now. So I take any overtime I can. There were other times however that I would have gladly taken comp time.

160. I was curious

So I asked one of my republican friends ( I live in the south so I have many), and I wanted to know what he thought. My buddy John who voted for Santorum during the primaries, said I don't care if he is a republican that's stupidest shit I've ever heard, were still trying to get out of this financial mess and these fools are trying to make it harder for people to get by, heck no. I was shocked because he's not even a moderate republican, so I thought he'd agree with it. If the GOP is trying to become popular again this is the WRONG way to go. So keep it up!

165. I'll wait and see

I'm sure that what he is proposing is bad, but it might be worked into something beneficial before it passes.

Over 20 years ago, I worked for a county government and we had this flexibility. When we worked overtime, we could take it in either pay or compensatory time. I almost always took the time because I preferred the extra vacation to more money.